This invention relates to cross-connect systems.
In the telecommunications field, cross-connect systems are an essential part of coupling customers to the local switch. For example, feeder distribution interfaces are installed in neighborhoods and include a multiplicity of feeder lines from the switch, or from a remote terminal coupled to the switch, at a first set of terminals on one side of the interface. A multiplicity of user lines to customers' premises are coupled to a set of terminals at an opposite side of the interface. The two sets of terminals are usually manually interconnected by jumper wires so that a particular customer is connected to a particular feeder line.
A major problem with such feeder distribution interfaces arises when it is necessary to change a customer's connection to the feeder lines, as for example, when customers move into or out of the area or desire to add an extra phone line. In such cases, it is necessary to send a telephone technician to the site and manually change the jumper wire. This procedure is quite expensive, especially in rural or suburban areas.
It would be far more economical to change the connections remotely from the central office (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,708). However, the cost of putting a switch or relay at each crosspoint in a switch matrix could be prohibitive. Thus, the art has sought ways of reducing the number of switches required in a cross-connect system. (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,802.)